Control Your Frame

I think there’s a lot we can learn from photography and camera shots that impacts our ability to choose positivity in our lives.

A camera shot is the amount of space seen in one shot or frame. Camera shots are used to primarily demonstrate different aspects of a film's setting, characters and themes. You have long shots, full shots, close up shot, extreme close up shots, etc. These camera shots are extremely important in shaping the meaning communicated when watching a film or looking at a picture.

Imagine watching a football game or your favorite movie if the frame never changed. The camera shot was always the same and there was no panning out or panning in. There were no wide shots, close shots or variation of shots. Imagine how much context you would miss by not changing the frame.  

Imagine if the camera was fixed on a tight shot of the quarterback for an entire game. You would miss all the action happening around and miss the broader context of the game. The variations of camera shots help give us different perspectives and help us fill in the context gaps that could exist if we didn’t get different camera shots.

The same is true for our perspectives and our journey to activate positivity in our lives. We often need to change our frames in order to get a different perspective of the situations we face. We often need to pan out and look at the bigger picture or pan in and focus on the immediate issues right in front of us.

We also often need to control what we allow in our frames and what we choose to focus on. What we allow in our frames impacts the overall picture and our overall outlook. We often allow negativity into our frames which directly impacts our attitudes. We start to focus on the negativity and our positivity starts to leak and lose focus.

Control your frame. Choose your focus.

What do I do when I don’t feel like being positive? How can I control my frame and choose my focus?

One of the best ways to battle negativity is to use the weapon of gratitude. It’s hard to think negatively or outwardly express negativity when you think about, write down or verbalize all the things you can be grateful for. Try it out. Next time you realize your being challenged by negativity, write down (3) things you’re grateful for or recite in your mind everything you can think to be thankful for. Nothing is too small to be thankful for and you’ll see this activity activate positivity within you.

I like to go on “thank you” walks. I’ll take a walk outside and speak out loud all the things I’m grateful for. I may look weird to drivers driving by, but it helps me get my mind in the proper frame and helps enable me to shift to positivity. It helps me control my frame and choose my focus.

Try these tactics the next time you find yourself focus on negativity. It’s critical to understand that you have the ability and the power to control your frame and choose your focus. You don’t control all the external factors coming at you but you can control what you choose to focus your attention on and what you allow in your frame.